Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	abraham_n	righteousness_n	seal_n	9,017	5	9.6941	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20176	Grace, mercy, and peace conteining 1 Gods reconciliation to man, 2 Mans reconciliation to God. By Henry Denne an unworthy servant of the Church, ...	Denne, Henry, 1606 or 7-1660?	1645 (1645)	STC 6610; ESTC R175933	37,602	120

moveth me unto it For there is nothing in you but rebellion but I doe it for my glory sake As the Prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord Esay 48.8.9 I knew that thou wouldest deale very treachercusly and was called a transgressour from the womb for my names sake will I deferre mine anger and for my praise will I refraine for thee that I cut thee not off This is all the qualification we bring unto God to win his love and mercie We are rebellious we are prophane we are a stiffe necked people And if the Lord should not love us untill hee find lovely conditions in us surely he must hate us for ever If God should not be reconciled unto us untill we be reconciled unto him he must continue our enemy for ever Wherefore considering what hath been said we will be bold to conclude to the praise of the glory of his grace that his love and mercie to us is before all qualifications in us that his love and mercy to us is the cause of all qualifications in us That his love towards us is as great before faith and conversion as after There is no difference in him But some will say peradventure we grant that God thus loveth us as is before prov'd but it may be it was because hee foresaw we would be good repent beleeve c. Farre bee it from us to entertain such thoughts He that well pondereth what hath beene said shall well perceive that God doth not therefore love us because hee foresaw we will repent and beleeve but therefore causeth us to repent and beleeve in his time because he loveth us But to make this also more cleare the holy Ghost declares That the kindnesse of God towards man appeared not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us Tit. 3.4 5. The paterne according to which God setteth his love upon man was not any thing save his rich mercy whereby it is plain Not that wee loved him but that he loved us 1 Iohn 4.10 Yee have not chosen mee but I have chosen you Iohn 15.16 As our Father Abraham receiceived the righteousnesse of faith being yet uncircumcised and then received the signe of circumcision a seale of the righteousnesse of faith which hee had yet being uncircumcised So as Abraham was first righteous and then circumcised not first circumcised and then righteous So the children of Abraham are first beloved and then converted not first converted and then beloved And as God did not account Abraham righteous because he foresaw he would be circumcised But therefore he gave him the signe of Circumcision because he had made him righteous So it is with the children of Abraham God doth not therefore love them because he foreseeth they will repent and believe but therefore he causeth them in his time to repent and believe the Gospel because he loved them Thus have I done with the first thing propounded in the handling of this proposition The second followes namely the answer unto the severall obiections The first and greatest is this if God love the elect while they are yet dead in trespasses and sinnes tand so love them with his great love and with as great a love before couversion as after as is before proved then how is it said Psalm 5.5 Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity And hither we may reserre many places of Scripture of like nature If God hate all the workers of iniquity how can he be said to love the ungodly Thus you see in one short sentence seemeth to be quite overthrown all that I have hitherto spoken To wind out of this labarinth which some having assayed have further intangled themselves with invocation unto God for the wisedome of his holy Spirit to guid us into the truth I will first shew you what some have said to clear this and then I shall deliver unto you mine own iudgement And yet I hope not mine owne but the iudgement of the Spirit of God and of most of the Saints of God First then I find a great Cathedrall Doctor moving the obiection and labouring to give solution to give us this distinction That God hates the workes but nor the persons of his elect I will not stand to question whether there may be such a distinction admitted or no but will take it for grant and yet I doe believe sinne to be of that hideous nature and the iustice of God so perfect that he cannot but hate the person unto whom hee imputeth and upon whom he chargeth sinne if so be the person charged cannot give full perfect and present satisfaction And yet will I not say that the Sonne of God upon whom all our iniquities great and small were charged was at any time Filius odii a sonne of hatred for the father was eternally well pleased with him the reason is that our sinnes were no sooner charged upon him but that hee had given full and perfect satisfaction being the Lamh slain from the foundation of the world Rev. 13.8 Although the soresaid distinction of person and workes should be granted without further question yet give me leave to pronounce it nothing pertinent to the solution of the Obiection in hand For the Text saith not onely he hateth the works but the workers that is the persons working iniquite Another answer is brought to untie this knot by a jiugling distinction of a twofold love in God namely Amor benevolentiae and amor complacentiae that the simple may understand there is in God say they a love of well willing and a love of liking Now God say they loves his elect before their conversion with the love of well-willing but not with the love of liking Like unto which we heare of a distinction not seldome Of the love of Election and the love of Iustification God say they loves his elect with the love of Election but not with the love of Iustification First of all I desire you to consider whether there be not more time then reason in these distinctions the love of Election and the love of Iustification being not diverfities of love or divers degrees of love but divers manifestations of one and the same infinite love As when a Father hath conveyed an inheritance to his Sonne here is no new love from the Father to the Sonne but a new manifestation of that love wherewith the father loved the sonne before Secondly how can it be that God should not like the person whom he loves There is indeed this difference betwen Humane love and Divine Men commonly love because they like but God likes because hee loves Man cannot but love where hee likes And I beleeve speaking of the person God cannot but like where hee loves To make such differences of love in God will I feare open a gap to many foule absurdities But suppose that these things could be so it will appeare that God loves the persons of his elect not only with a

must know that it is meere necessity that drives us we are by nature haters of God and cannot be brought to come to God in love before we perceive God to love us such is the malignant nature of man that if he could make any shift in the world hee would not bee beholding to God for helpe The prodigall sonne will never returne to his father so long as he can get cloaths for his backe and meate for his belly elsewhere but when he is brought to that passe that he would fain have filled his belly with husks which the swine did eate and no man gave unto him Luke 15.16 Then he is contented to thinke of submitting to his father but not before if he could have got a living by keeping of Hogs hee would not have returned Thus is it with man so long as he is in any hope to escape misery any other way there is no hope of his returning to God They that be whole need not the Physitian but they that are sick Mat. 9.12 The Pharisee thinketh himself able to establish his owne righteousnesse and therefore he will not submit to the righteousnesse of God Rom. 10.4 He cares not a pinne for Christ he is whole he cares not for the Physitian If any man will come after me let him deny himselfe and take up his crosse daily and follow me Luke 9.23 No man can follow Christ except he deny himselfe his own Righteousnesse and holinesse would you know a reason under the determinate counsell of God why the Publicans and Harlots received Christ but the holy Pharisees rejected him a true paterne of our dayes the Pharisees thought themselves able to stand upon their owne legs they were alive in their conceits and for them to heare of righteousnesse in another was too great a disparagement unto them and their holinesse when the publicans and strumpets being convinced of sinne and having no righteousnesse of their owne they are contented to accept it upon any terms A rich man he sometimes scorneth a gift and saith nay but I will buy it I will give satisfaction for it but the poor naked man is glad to receive what he wanteth Thus before the soule of man be brought to be reconciled unto God it is necessary that it see it selfe a sinfull creature yea so sinfull That neither crying nor howling can wash it away yea so sinfull that no correction or amendment of life is able to make satisfaction Thus farre of the antecedent conditions which as I said before are proper to all but not onely to them that are reconciled to God for these that I have shewed hitherto may be found in the not reconciled even as in the reconciled yea in the reprobate even as in the elect The second sort of conditions are present which go before reconciliation as the cause before the effect but is never separated from it as being the thing I say whereby the holy Spirit of God doth actually reconcile the soule to God Of this sort I finde but one only condition namely of faith or beleeving Here are two things to be pondered The first That without beleeving the soule remaining in the body cannot be reconciled unto God The second That by beleeving the soule is actually reconciled unto God For the first it is proved He that beleeveth not the Sonne shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Iohn 3.36 To be reconciled to God is to see life therefore he that beleeveth not shall not be reconciled to God but the apprehension of the wrath of God shall torment his wakened conscience He that beleeveth not shall not see life he shall see nothing but wrath Secondly He that beleeveth not God hath made him a lyar 1 Iohn 5.10 That is hath accounted him a lyar Now who can finde in his heart to be reconciled to a lyar Wherby it is plain that without or before faith man cannot be reconciled unto God For the second that by beleeving the soule becomes to be reconsiled unto God is proved He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seale that God is true John 3.33 As many as received him to them he gave power to become the sonnes of God even to them that beleeve on his name Iohn 1.12 Whosoever beleeveth hath power to cry Abba Father And to this place we refer that knowne text Rom. 5.1 Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ And this is the proper office of faith as it justifieth to reconcile the soule and conscience unto God and to make us at peace with him by assuring us of his favour and good will towards us in Jesus Christ manifested in that God gave his only Sonne to be a propitiation for our sinnes and to satisfie whatsoever the justice of God required at his hands And this is our receiving of Christ our putting on of Christ and our living by faith if we take faith for beleeving And thus much of the second condition which is present Now followes the third sort of conditions which are consequent unto our reconciliation and things that accompany our salvation These conditions are first Ioy in the Holy Ghost Secondly Love to God and his Church Thirdly New obedience in newnesse of spirit and not in oldnesse of the letter First Ioy in the Holy Ghost is a necessary consequent and an inseparble companion to our reconciliation by faith as appears by that which hath been spoken before touching joying in beleeving with joy unspeakable and full of glory And indeed how can it be that it should be otherwise can the men of this world hear of great possessions fallen unto them without joyfulnesse How then is it possible that the children of the living God can come to the apprehension of the fatherly love of God in Christ but they must needs sing a new song yea break forth into singing and cry aloud with the blessed Virgin saying My soule doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour Luke 1.46 If I could this day bring you happy tydings of reconciliation betweene King and Parliament which the God of heaven effect what joy would this work in the hearts of every man here present How much more shall the tydings of eternall peace by Jesus Christ affect the soule with extraordinary comfort Here what the Lord speaks concerning the new Jerusalem God shal wipe away all teares from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying c. Rev. 21.4 Let others think what they will I firmely beleeve the new Ierusalem to be the glorious kingdome of Iesus Christ which is righteousnesse and peace and joy in the holy Ghost advanced in the conscience and hither also are to be referred those glorious things that are spoken of the City of our God by the Gospell Prophet in these words The ransomed of the Lord shall returne and come to Sion with songs and everlasting joy upon